The following is a list of events that took place today:
12:45pm – Had a tearful goodbye with mom at the airport in Paris
1:00pm – Had lunch at the airport Pizza Hut
1:50pm – Boarded a TGV to get back to Lyon
3:50pm – Arrived in Lyon and prayed fro there to be a bus to take me to my apartment (transit strike)
4:10pm – Dropped my bags off at the apartment to find (yup) a new roommate who moved back after his summer in Australia. Didn’t have time to chat, so I said a quick hello and then it was off to the bus stop again.
4:20pm – after hoping really hard, a bus finally arrived (you really never know with this strike) and I got on and headed to the apartment rental agency…. Any idea where this is going?
5:00pm – Signed the lease to my new amazing apartment in Vieux Lyon!
Yesterday, I went to the museum of all museums. My mother and I had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the world-famous home to masterpieces such as Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Or as the other hundred thousand people that were in the museum would say it… “I saw the Mona Lisa!”
Now, I love museums. I try to visit some sort of museum whenever I get the chance. These people – or shall I say animals, who shelled out their 9€ to catch a glimpse of the (for some reason) infamous Mona Lisa, need to get a lesson in how to behave in a crowded public place. Never in my life did I think that in a museum, I would get shoved out of the way to see a painting that people aren’t even taking to time to look at. They just throw their cameras in the air, point and shoot without even giving the work of art the few seconds it deserves to be observed up close and personally. To them I ask…What’s the point of taking a picture of something that you’ve already seen in pictures a thousand times?
So I saw it. It was nice. But on the wall opposite DaVinci’s most well known painting, was an enormous tableau of The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese which took my breath away. What amazed me even more, was how few people even looked in its direction. What I want to know is, what’s the big deal? Who made the Mona Lisa the thing to see if you’re in France? After having seen it with my own two eyes, all I could come up with is… she’s got a great publicist. Yeah there’s something behind her mysterious smile, but who wouldn’t be smiling if tourists came from all corners of the world to see you? Don’t get me wrong, DaVinci was an extremely talented artist and I just think that his other works of art deserve as much credit as La Joconde. It’s just that other than the room that houses the now famous painting, museum-goers didn’t seem to have much interest in anything else.
If you have the opportunity to visit the Louvre, fight your way through the crowd to see the Mona Lisa and decide for yourself. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? After spending 5 hours in the museum, my mother and I had seen a small percent of the art that is showcased there. But I did manage to be blown away by some of the sculptures and paintings that we came across.
Here are my top 3 things to see in the Louvre *with reasons why they are better than the Mona Lisa.
THE RUBENS ROOM
1)There are benches for taking well needed rests here.
2)Because in 1622, Queen Mary (widow of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII) commissioned Rubens to create 24 canvases to decorate the Palace of Luxemburg. The paintings illustrate the history of heroism within her family. Each and every one of them is awesome.
VENUS DI MILO
Because she’s fierce… even though she’s missing both arms. Much less of a crowd here, and the ancient sculpture is magnificent.
LE PAVILLION DES SESSIONS
This part of the museum was virtually empty. With every turn I was amazed with the creations of artists from various parts of the globe. The Tribal and aboriginal art was astounding. With an emphasis on animals and mythology, their statues (made up of wood and different metals) were really a breath of fresh air after looking at so much marble in the ancient Greek and Roman divisions.
In all, visiting the Louvre was an amazing way to spend the day. I’m so glad I got to experience it, even though some people in certain rooms made it a tad unpleasant. But it’s the Louvre! Luckily there were 700 other rooms to visit. Now I can finally say “I saw the Mona Lisa!” – but really, what’s the big deal?
My mother is leaving France the same way she came in… from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. We decided to go three days early to spend some time in Paris together. It’s been 30 years since she last visited the most romantic city in the world and we thought it was time for her to see how it’s changed since the 1970s.
We were blessed with amazing weather during our stay, and we managed to do a whole lot of sightseeing in the three days we were there. The first day we decided to go visit Notre Dame. I was in Paris a few months ago and didn’t get the chance to see it so it was the very first thing that I wanted to cross off my list. My mother had no objections. The cathedral is Off. The. Wall. My newly found obsession with churches reached a new level with this one. It is absolutely incredible. The from the famous stained-glass Rose windows to the art that lines the chapels this house of worship; all of it took my breath away.
Afterwards we strolled through the Jardin de Luxembourg. It’s kind of like France’s Central Park. This massive greenspace is filled with fountains and statues, tennis courts and beautiful flowerbeds, oh yeah. It even has chairs… everywhere(!) for people to just relax, and have a seat and enjoy the view. What a view it is. Oh, and there's a palace! I love palaces...
For dinner we headed to Montmarte, the 18e arrondissement. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant in the famous Place de Tetre. It’s a real touristy part of town where artists paintings and portraits all day. The center of the square is taken over by restaurant terraces. It was a really lovely evening. On the walk back, we caught a glimpse of Sacre Coeur all lit up (something I did every night on my walk home the first time I came to Paris). Now that’s a gorgeous basilica if I ever did see one.
Taking advantage of the few hours of sunshine we had today here in Lyon, I took my mother to the Parc de la Tete d'Or. As I've previously mentioned, it is a very large park where there are tonnes of things to see. Today I decided to check out a part of the park I've never seen before: le Jardin Botanique (botanical garden). While I was walking around and observing the foliage, I channeled my inner Campbell* and decided to take some pictures of the lovely strains of flowers.
We woke up this morning to some pretty bad weather. It was rainy and cloudy so we thought it would be the perfect day to go and see a movie. After waiting in line 20 minutes for our tickets to Julie & Julia (apparently we weren't the only ones who thought it would be good idea to go to the movies) we finally made our way into the theater, got our seats and prepared to be pleasantly entertained for the next two hours. The movie was a nice treat. We both enjoyed it. A great mother/daughter film. Nora Ephron's screenplay brings together two true stories; the first of which tells the story of how Julia Child discovered her passion for French cuisine and her dream to have her cookbook published in the mid 1950s and the second is the contemporary story of a post 9/11 government secretary in New York (named Julie) who decides to challenge herself to cook her way through Mrs. Child's famous cookbook in one year and blog about her experiences.
It was a feel good movie, so my mom and I left the theater feeling pretty good. The interesting thing was, when she left all she wanted to do was cook, and for some reason, I just wanted to blog about it. It's really great having her here. We stepped out of the theater and realized that the sun had come out. We decided to spend the rest of our Sunday outside, in the only part of town where things are open on a Sunday -- Vieux Lyon. With her camera in hand, Mom set out to be the vacationing tourist that she is, and clicked her way through the 5e arrondisment.
On our down time, we've just been going out for coffee, tea or beers planning out our time together, getting really excited for what we're going to see in Paris next week.
It's officially been over three months since I moved to France. Three months is the maximum amount of time you can stay in certain countries without having to get a long stay visa. So, when you think of it like that, three months is kind of like the maximum length of time for a 'vacation' in Europe. So it's official, my vacation is over. I guess I knew that already when I got into a routine of waking up at 6:30am to go to work some days. On days like that I never feel like like I'm on vacation.
It's been awhile since I've seen a familiar face from back home. I guess the last one I saw was my friend Sim when we went to Nimes. And before that it was Emily who visited from Ireland. But now I've got the greatest visitor of all. Mommy's here!
We've been keeping in touch a lot so I didn't really feel I had that much to say to her it terms of 'catching up' when she arrived yesterday. But it does feel great to show her around the city and see it through her eyes for the first time. I guess that was the same look of awe I had in my face when I first got here. My favourite part of yesterday was when I caught my mom smiling uncontrollably. She couldn't stop! It was hilarious/amazing. I don't remember the last time I saw her so happy. I think it had more to do with her being in France than seeing me. She's here for two weeks so I'll have plenty of stories to let you in on... trust me.
On the same sad day that my roommate and bestie Valentin hopped on a plane to Ireland (for two weeks), I came home from work to an apartment bustling with action and filled with people. It was an awesome surprise. Gabriella, a girl that used to live here, returned from her summer of traveling and just got back in time to start classes next week. She brought along with her a friend from Paris who would be staying the for the weekend. And my new roommate of two weeks Marie-Lawrence (from Quebec-- I know, right?) was home; so to celebrate Gaby's return, we decided to go out for dinner on the swanky Rue Mercière.
(I didn't take this picture)
It's a beautiful street lined on either side by restaurants that showcase all kinds of cuisine. It's a pretty well known street with tourists and locals, so finding a table on a mild Saturday night in September, was kind of tricky. So we waited a little while for a table at this Italian styled restaurant. It was lovely. Marie-Lawrence had never met Gaby and I had only met her once, so we had lots to talk about. The two girls talked about which courses they would be taking at the university Lyon 2, and I wanted to hear Gaby's stories about her time traveling around the United States this summer. After that we met up with even more people and hit the town of Lyon on a Saturday night. Living in a colocation (apartment w/ roommates) never really gets boring. There are always people coming and going or visiting and moving in and out.
We can all agree that finding the perfect apartment is nearly impossible. That being said, finding a decent apartment is downright stressful. But finding an apartment in a foreign country, is just insane. Especially in a university town when classes are about to start and your sublet is up in a couple of weeks and you've still got no place to live.
I've been on the hunt for a new place to call home for about three weeks now. Using various websites and checking out the local agencies, I've tried to find affordable housing that is close to work and public transportation. The only problem is, no one wants to rent to students -- apparently you are only worthy of an apartment if you have a family. Now I've been done with school for sometime now, but unfortunately the people I'm moving out with (the awesome duo that is Benoit and Valentin) still have a couple of years of classes to finish.
When I arrived in Lyon, I was lucky enough to sublet an apartment for the summer; it was perfect for me because I wasn't sure how long I would be staying in Lyon. But alas, I got a job, made some friends and now, this is the city that I call home. Except I've got to be out of here in T-29 days.
I've visited about a half dozen apartments and most of them weren't exactly the kind of place I see myself living for the next 8 months. Needless to say, I'm starting to worry. I think the really scary part will be finding the perfect apartment, and then trying to gather the necessary (French) documents to make it all come to fruition. Things usually have a way of working themselves out. I hope this situation doesn't turn out to be the exception to the rule. I'll keep you posted!
Ahh... another Sunday in Lyon. As most of the shops were closed and I (obviously) didn't have to go to work today, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a bike ride around town. After two failed attempts at renting a velo'v (one had a flat tire, the other had issues with the gear shift) I got on my bike and began to pedal towards the enormous Parc de la Tete D'Or. The park has everything in it from a zoo to a museum of modern art, but I was on a mission to go see a movie at the UGC Cite International. The cinema was in a part of the park I had yet to explore, a very interesting stretch of land -- on which I found a hotel, a casino and.... The International Criminal Police Organization's official headquarters, in Lyon. Yes, ladies and gents, I biked past Interpol today. It's a pretty classy looking place. Not that I went inside or anything, I wouldn't want to be late for my screening of The Ugly Truth. Though it would have been fitting for me to go see some conspiracy theory action film after discovering such a fascinating location, sometimes a girl just need a cheesy and predictable romantic comedy on a Sunday afternoon. And for the record, I'm not embarassed to say that I actually laughed out loud a couple of times during the movie. It had its moments.
So, it's been a sad week here in the apartment, ever since Eimear went home back to Dublin. She was my best mate here in France and we had lots of good times together. I know that along this journey I will continue to make new friends and there will be many more goodbyes, but saying goodbye never really gets easier. On the bright side, this just gives me yet another reason to visit Ireland sooner rather than later :) I'll see you soon my monument researching historian.
I had the privilege of attending my first football match last weekend. Lyon was playing against Nancy. I thought I knew what I was in for, but I was in way, way over my head. I watched the previous three matches on the TV screens of various Irish pubs, chose my two favorite players (one based on looks, the other I chose because he scored the most goals that night), and I even learned some rules of the game prior to me attending my first live match! But no one warned me about the chanting.
The constant, baritone shouting of chants made to encourage the home team while psyching out the visitors became just as entertaining to witness as the players fighting for the ball on the field. These men (approx. 33,000 people in attendance), knew every lyric to at least 15 different football chants. The setup involves a 'leader' with a megaphone somewhere in the crowd to start them off, and then for the next minute and a half, the 'Big Gonnes' (what they call the die hard fans out here) are screaming, waving flags around and jumping up and down ON their seats. That's right, I paid for a seat which I later found out was for standing on. Le Stade Gerland was louder than a Death Boat show. It was amazing! I'm not the world's biggest sports fan, but I most definitely enjoyed myself. By the end of the match, I started singing and jumping on my seat with the best of them.
The final score was 3-1 for Lyon. The stadium and the city was buzzing with victory. Being surrounded by all of that positive energy was pretty invigorating. I wonder how hard would it be to learn the lyrics to 15 French football chants by next weekend?
